Pistol barrel caliber & twist for 50 yd.

What is a good combination of pistol barrel caliber & twist for 50 yd. target shooting?
My Traditions pistol is 32 cal. and 1/48 twist. Accuracy is good at 25 yds, not good at 50 yds. Might that be because of the slow twist?
Using .310" ball, 21 gr. of FFFg and .022" patch.

I don't own a .32 cal pistol that I would use for target shooting but I'll make some wild guesses about your gun/load.

If your shooting a roundball or bullet, the 1/48 twist seems too slow. It would shoot better if it was around 1/18.

The .310 ball with a .022 patch seems to be too tight too me.
I know some guns shoot better with a tight patch, but .022 is a really thick patch for a .310 ball.
If it is starting easily during loading, perhaps my comment isn't worth thinking about, but if it starts really hard perhaps you are deforming the forward part of the ball, either with the starter or the ramrod.
It doesn't take much deforming to effect the path of a .310 ball by the time it gets out at 50 yards and this coupled with the slow twist may be the problem.

Because the velocity is low in pistols, it takes a while for the ball to get to the target so any cross wind can have a major effect on accuracy.

Revolutions per second are a function of two things, twist rate and exit velocity.
Generally shorter pistol barrels have a faster twisr rate per cailber than rifles because they develope less velocity.
My Pietta .44 revolvers have a 1:20 twist rate, but a .44 rifle might be better served with a 1:48 or slower twist rate because the rifle will generate higher velocity thus spinning the ball faster.
In the .32 shorty, the twist orat be faster, say 1:18 or thereabouts as Zonie mentioned.
Zonie brought about another good point ( unusual for him what?) in that if you deform the nose of a roundball you are asking for accuracy problems. Oddly the roundball responds badly to a deformed front rather than a deformed rear.

YEA, don't ya just hate them Deformed REARS. :: ::

YEA, don't ya just hate them Deformed REARS. :: ::

Click to expand...

Oooooooouch!!!!!!!!!!!11

I have one of those same pistols and mine doesn't shoot well either, I use .310 ball and .015 patch. I plan to rebarrel it with a "pistol" barrel, about 1 in 20 more or less should work. For a target pistol I like .45 cal.

You've got the Crockett pistol. Yes, it does have the 1 in 48" twist. They had mistakenly advertised that it has the 1 in 16" - wrong! I got mine to print excellent groups at both 25 and 50 yards but only after some work. I ran some Scotch brite pad and 3 in 1 oil wrapped around an undersized dowel with grooves cut in it up and down the bore about 100 passes. I then bumped the powder charge up to 25 grains of powder. More powder, more velocity = faster spin (I think???). Seems to work anyway. I sent the little pistol back anyway because I didn't like the fact them saying one thing and selling something different. Good luck. :winking: